Frequent use of social media is not directly related to higher stress. But stress can be contagious through social media channels: Social media users are often more aware of the stressful events in others' lives, and this awareness itself can lead to higher stress.

Alex Grech's insight:

This Pew Research Center survey of 1,801 adults examines the extent to which their lives have become more stressful as a result of the widespread use of social media.

In 40 years will Google, Facebook and Visa sell all your emails, photos, and purchase history to your grandchildren? The Sony hack has reminded us that nearly everything we say and do here in the early 21st century will be on the record forever. And we better be prepared for the historians of tomorrow to pick through every piece of it.

Alex Grech's insight:

There's something mildly Orwellian in the notion of our interactions and discourse on social media being sold for the private gain of others in the future. Let's face it, Zuckerberg and friends have youth on their side to play more games in the future. And sell this as a 'service for the private good'.

And you may find yourself sharing your Facebook year in reviewAnd you may find yourself loving humanity's online hueAnd you may find yourself loving the Facebook algorithm tooAnd you may find yourself in your beautiful life, as compared with another Facebook life And you may ask yourselfWell... How did I get here?

A Conservative arguing that net neutrality must be in place for the free market to function in the Internet age. Heaney says that Government-regulated utilities are still preferable to unregulated private sector monopolies or even duopolies..

It’s not every day that you are asked to develop the Lifelong Learning Strategy for your country. Lifelong learning has become a loaded term within the EU context, with interpretations that range from ‘learning throughout life for personal empowerment’ to ‘learning basic skills’ to secure employment in the labour-market. So it was clear to …

Alex Grech's insight:

The Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020 has now been published for public consultation. ‘Learning through life’ should not simply be an activity we are obliged to follow for economic reasons, but our fundamental right as citizens in an inclusive society.

These are some quick observations on strategic planning based on the process I managed to develop the LLL Strategy 2020.

Given that links appear to be more clickable when shared on Facebook, online publishers have scrambled to become savvy gamers of Facebook’s News Feed, seeking to divine the secret rules that push some stories higher than others. But all this genuflection at the altar of Facebook’s algorithms may be but a prelude to a more fundamental shift in how content is produced, shared, and consumed online. Instead of going to all this trouble to get people to click a link on Facebook that takes them somewh

Some users find themselves kicked off for reasons that seem arbitrary, and being reinstated can be a frustrating process.

Alex Grech's insight:

Facebook:

“Your account has been disabled. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our F.A.Q. page.”

A drag queen on being barred from using the social network of choice:

"We don’t realize how ingrained Facebook is in our everyday lives. I was shut out of Facebook for 24 hours and felt like I had a limb chopped off.”

Eric Goldman, professor of law at Santa Clara University in California and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute:

“When Facebook makes a termination decision, it’s potentially life-altering for some people. They’re cut off to access to their communities and possibly to their clients.".

Lee Rowland, a staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The average person’s soapbox is now digital, and we’re now in a world where the large social media companies have a government-like ability to set social norms. It’s a massive power and it comes with a responsibility.”

Monika Bickert, head of Facebook’s global policy management,:

"Our goal has always been to strike an appropriate balance between the interests of people who want to express themselves and the interests of others who may not want to see certain kinds of content.”

Professor Citron, author of “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace,” on Facebook:

“I think it’s a positive thing that they’re allowed to set community norms. The problem is a lack of technological due process."

Michael Letwin, lawyer living in Brooklin.

“It was a Kafkaesque thing. You don’t know if you did too many posts, too many likes. The rules are constantly changing".

Monica Bickert, head of Facebook's global policy management:“One area where we’re focusing is improving the information we share with people about our community standards and when we take action on reported content.”

In the middle of scanning windows of Facebook bonfire vanities, selfies, racism, nationalism and other self-branding signs of the times, you are momentarily distracted by a blog post on John Dewey's warnings about harnessing our attention and curiosity.

“While it is not the business of education … to teach every possible item of information, it is its business to cultivate deep-seated and effective habits of discriminating tested beliefs from mere assertions, guesses, and opinions.”

The digital tools are as permeable for mindfulness as they are for mindlessness. Differentiating between the two is the education we have still to recognise, let alone invent.

When a friend posted a photograph of charity worker Lindsey Stone on Facebook, she never dreamed she would lose her job and her reputation. Two years on, could she get her life back?

Alex Grech's insight:

I suggest you first start with the embedded video, then work your way through the article. There is much to contemplate in this article - from the vanity of academia to the stealing of online identities and the veil afforded by online to the worst type of real life bullying and public shaming on social media. It's another sign of the times - but not easy to digest.

This morning I was thinking about the things that all young people should know how to do regardless of income, geographical location, life goals, etc. I started a list - see below. Some have "alw...

Alex Grech's insight:

Considering that we all have to be lifelong learners, for a raft of socio-economic reasons - or for the sheer pleasure of it - this is a pretty awesome list. To be shared with parents, people in suits, kids, educators and anyone else with an interest in digital literacy (even if they don't quite understand what that is all about...)

There's an element of social anthropology in this article 'written by an actual teen'. Definitely an interesting read for parents, educators and those obsessed with engaging with Generation Y and their social media practices.

Privacy not my problem When you discuss about privacy in a heteronymous group, there will always be at least one who states he/she has nothing to hide because he/she does nothing wrong. There are s...

Alex Grech's insight:

2014 was also the year concerns about online surveillance made it to the mainstream. Not that we've made any significant progress with issues relating to trust, privacy and power issues in the name of native advertising and ROI for your social media platform of choice.

In the face of overwhelming evidence of Facebook's dominance of our online discourse and behaviour, It's far too early for anyone to crow about its imminent demise. Yet there is some truth in the assertion about the growing 'collective unease' about the network's use of 'small lives' as fair game for data management and monetisation. Or the fact that it's not yet a 'winner takes all' scenario in the social media network space.

It's time to recognize that people are not the product and that end user contributions to social networks deserve to be compensated.

Alex Grech's insight:

It's way too early to think that the pendulum is swinging back from 'social data of the masses for the profit of the few' to 'free social networks for individual empowerment'. Nevertheless, any promise of alternatives that move away from centrally-owned platforms deserve to be explored.

When I teach infotention, I show learners how they can curate Twitter lists and use Paper.li to turn the lists into daily briefings by networks of experts on topics of their choosing. Curating, focusing, distilling, and formatting incoming streams of information about precisely the topics that interest you at any time is a key infotention skill. h/t Tracy Vu

It's worth having a look at Howard Rheingold's comment on this post where he mentions that he suggests to his students creating Twitter lists and then using Paper.li to create a briefing around the topic or network. It's not something I've done but sounds like an effective way to curate #FOAMed resources insights to students and trainees.

The emergence of supercomputing in everyday life will require a new kind of literacy that will allow us to appreciate what the technology can — and can’t — do.

Alex Grech's insight:

We may have the tools but we still have to get our heads round digital literacies.

"To fully realize the potential of the newly pervasive supercomputing environment, two things are needed: a new type of literacy that will enable us to use the technology properly, and the appropriate network infrastructure to provide full access to its capabilities".

I have high hopes for the network infrastructure. We are almost on day zero on digital literacies, despite various EU pronouncements.

I teach theory and practice of social media at NYU, and am an advocate and activist for the free culture movement, so I’m a pretty unlikely candidate for Internet censor, but I have just asked the students in my fall seminar to refrain from using laptops, tablets and phones in class.

Alex Grech's insight:

I must first admit to a quiet snigger that the much-celebrated trail-blazer of 'Here comes Everybody' and 'Cognitive Surplus' has concluded that social media and mobile technologies in the classroom do not enable 'we-think' but simply contribute to attention disorder, student disconnect and 'noise'.

Yet all of us who are at times engaged in the quasi stand-up ritual of 'teaching' know that it' is becoming more difficult to be 'relevant' in the classroom, when the 'second-hand distractions' and relexivity of entertainment on mobile devices are so much more compelling that whatever we choose to serve via PowerPoint, Prezi or plain old whiteboard in marker.

Perhaps the real challenge is finding some workable solution to what Shirky calls 'the collaborative process of focus - not a 'switch in rules' but a switch in how we go about this teaching / learning lark in the 21st century. Creating "a classroom where the students who want to focus have the best shot at it, in a world increasingly hostile to that goal". Right, that's the mountain. Now, how do we climb that one? Because the mountain is not going away in a big hurry.

On the day Schmidt sparred with Assange on four ongoing ideological struggles:

1) What will control of cyberspace look like? Will it be well-organised and centrally controlled by states and corporations, or by the individual users and professional experts?

2) Is the web neutral or political?

3) Is the true control of information in the hands of the new mediators and network gatekeepers?

4) What constitutes transparency online?

These power struggles are currently framed in simplistic terms: good against evil, anarchist versus conformist, freedom fighter against the power hungry. Like most things in life, the 'truth' is in various shades of grey.

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